Since the days of Capone, Cook County’s historical status as a corrupt institution has been common knowledge the world over. In the years since prohibition, the federal government has waged an ongoing war against the Italian-American mafia, and it might seem that this once powerful underworld agency is dead or dying. With this in mind, some might believe that Cook County’s reputation for mobbed-up mischief and political payoffs is simply a stigma retained from those halcyon days when Syndicate heavyweights ruled a gangland empire that stretched from Chicago to Los Angeles from the safety of their bought and paid for Chicago roost.
Anyone who has read my work, or the work of countless other brave and intrepid souls who dare to shine a light on the wretched inner workings of Cook County’s byzantine cuckoo clock of corruption, will know that this is simply not true. While the manipulation of these sinister criminals might be of a more subtle variety than the Tommy Gun blasting thugs of the bloodthirsty Al Capone or the ostentatious Sam Giancana, their power is still heavily entrenched in city, county and state politics.
Take, for example, the case of Cook County Judge Jill Cerone-Marisie. In her time on the bench she has committed several grievous violations of her oath as a minister of justice, and I think it is high time that the rest of the world knows about it.
Cook County, still crippled by corruption in the halls of justice.
Jill Cerone-Marisie once served as a longtime corporate officer of Erbacci & Cerone, a law-firm that, according to a federal investigation, was found to have deep-rooted connections to some of the most powerful organized crime lords in American history, including the infamous Chicago Outfit. A federal investigation initially launched by the Reagan Administration served as the mechanism that discovered and acknowledged this law firm’s longstanding ties to organized crime. These findings were enough for the government to prohibit the wild and woolly bunch known as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from maintaining their longstanding business relations with Erbacci & Cerone.
32 Comments
Joe, the first thing I picked up on when reading this article was a sprinkling of Conrad Black-esque wordplay (e.g., “Cook County’s byzantine cuckoo clock of corruption”). The term “purple prose” comes to mind. Have you been doing some language exercises or something in preparation for writing your book?
…meant as a compliment
HF, Your comment was taken as a compliment, thank you. It is never too late to make improvements.
Readers:
Does anyone know if owners of Mariano’s Fresh Market ever donated to Jill Cerone Marisie’s campaign?
http://elections.il.gov/CampaignDisclosure/ContributionsSearchByAllContributions.aspx
http://elections.il.gov/CampaignDisclosure/ContributionsSearchByAllContributions.aspx
Interesting to look over her 2006 income from contributions. The most donations came from John Cerone, but there’s a bunch of Outfit-related names in the list. Last names include Accardo, Angelini, Caifano, Eboli, Delucia and Maritote for starters.
http://elections.il.gov/CampaignDisclosure/ItemizedContrib.aspx?FiledDocID=320949&ContributionType=Individual%20Contributions&Archived=True&OrderBy=LastorOnlyName-AtoZ&ItemizedContribFrom=D2Semi.aspx
Thank you for the good information.
Billy D contributed…maybe Chinless kicked in under Billy D’s name….
He is a coo coo alright
…meant in a positive way inside joke….
Who is coo coo?
Joe’s spelling is sometimes coo coo!
Right, lol.
i think your postscript crosses the so called line joe.to refer to a judge as a corrupt government official based on a ruling is slander in the worst degree.do urself a favor and retact this story asap…
You are ignoring other vital factors. Reread the piece.
Joe, Was Judge Jill Cerone ever a Judge in a coutroom case involving you? I think you are at least a little biased against her because of her past family connections. Accusing her of being corrupt is unfair and unfounded. I’m sure the other person was arested for a good reason and was convicted for a good reason. They don’t go around arresting people and convicting them on nothing. Every time something goes against you or someone you know, it is always someone else’s fault. Not the way it works in the real world. I’ve read a lot of your past complaints and to be honest, you sound a little like a crybaby always crying fowl play about something. Peolple need to take responsibility for their actions. Would you not agree?
Nina, whoops, I mean Ms Citizen,
No, Judge Jill was not a judge in any court that I have appeared in. Thank you for asking. Whether I am biased against her or not, I have printed the facts accurately and responsibly. Her corrupt involvement is found in her work, both past and present. A judge should not sit on a case when her neighbor and friend are directly connected to the entity that is allegedly victimized. I read the transcript of the case indicated in the article. I shared it with other lawyers and judges who all agree that her verdict was defective; she made a stupid ruling. She should not have been on the case in the first place. There was no valid evidence to convict. Again, I read the transcripts.
According to your statements, it seems that you would think that a false arrest is impossible. It is not. It is worse when the judge covers up for her neighbors problems after a false arrest.
I happen to know that Judge Jill is aspiring to be on a higher court. Her behavior on the bench should prevent her wish. We cannot have a judge on the bench in the appeals court or the Supreme Court who scans her courtroom for familiar names and faces in order to manufacture justice.
I agree that people, especially judges, must take responsibility and remove themselves from cases when their neighbors are involved in said cases.
If my interest in protecting justice is called being a crybaby, I am one proud crybaby.
If genuine wrongdoers as Judge Jill who I report on should go free simply because I am suspected of harboring personal resentments against them, it would be a sad day for justice.
Are you saying that you were completely innocent in your threatening and harrassing phone calls towards Jill Cerone’s brother? By the way, name the judge who agreed with you about Judge Cerone’s decision. Why would the other person be falsley arrested? Do you think you were wrongly convicted in your harrassment case against Judge Cerone’s brother? Why would you harrass and threaten a court official, Jack Cerone Junior? If you feel he and Fratto extorted money from you, why would you pay them in the first place and then turn arounfd and threaten Jack Cerone Junior and his family? Maybe the investment you made with him simply went bad. That is not extortion.
Dear Ms. Citizen,
Judge Jill’s brother never brought such charges against me. Your source is as bad as it gets. I do not have permission to name the judge who commented on the case in question. I cannot speak for the security agents and police as to why they falsely arrested the true victim. Your information is bad. In addition, it is our policy at ANP that comments must pertain to the subject indicated in the article. Further nonsense will be omitted from the threads in order to keep good organization. Thank you.
What real good work have you done on Anp? Your articles are sometimes good and other times completely biased to cover up your own past mistakes. Has anyone ever been arrested because of your articles? Has anyone ever benn convicted because of your articles? Do you really think you are harming Judge Jill Cerone with your article? Your articles are self serving gossip which harm noone.
You seem like a mix of The Don and TNT, but I will call you SQE Citizen.
Dear SQE Citizen,
The good work of ANP ignited the launch of a number of investigations. The spotlight that ANP shined on the disgraced Doctor Joseph Giacchino contributed to the swift suspension of his medical license. Scrutiny that ANP caused for some was enough to curb corruption in numerous ways.
I do think that exposing the corrupt Judge Jill will contribute to her being prevented from ascending to a higher court.
I hope my articles do not harm anyone; they are designed to help in the name of justice.
PS,
Dear SQE Citizen,
There are thousands of reporters like me. Can you name 10 who have caused people to be indicted and convicted? If so, read off the list for me. Thank you.
While I agree that her behavior on the bench should prevent her rise to higher courts, sadly because of the area we live in, current political powers in place, her last name (either one I guess), and money she may succeed. After all, she has her current position even though the Chicago Council of Lawyers found her “not qualified” and the Chicago Bar Association, citing insufficient legal experience, said she was “not recommended.”
Chicago is called the most corrupt city in America according to a former alderman turned professor. I can’t think of an article more appropriate.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/02/14/chicago-called-most-corrupt-city-in-nation/
Richard,
Your feedback is always appreciated.
Dear Barb,
You are inaccurate as usual. I do not hate anyone that I have investigated and reported on. In addition, speaking for ‘other reporters’ and claiming knowledge of who they do not hate is irrational thinking.
Thank you for your readership and blog participation.
I am involved in criminal harassment by public officials and public workers, The Town of Starbuck has elected a mayor who has harassed me for years. His wife is also guilty of harassment against me.. I would like to know how to go about having the mayor of Starbuck, Wn. impeached. My basis for this is not only the personal criminal harassment against me; but the criminal misuse of public properties, also the criminal misuse of the town`s machinery; such as the public lawn mower. This mower has so many uncalled for miles placed on it; while using it to harass me; I cannot even discuss it. Also. there is a husband and wife serving on city council. “Good friends of Mayor” I know this is not legal. The last city council had a mother-in-law—son-in-law seats on council. I want something done about the criminal mis-use of Starbuck`s City Council. Please point me in the right direction to start legal proceeding against these people.
I will email you in a day or two. Thanks for stopping by.
Joe, Why have your felony convictions not been corrected to misdemaenors in the Jack Cerone Attorney case. You stated they were a mistake. Am I Correct? Why has the mistake never been corrected?? Why cant’t you hire a lawyer to correct the mistake or simply write a letter to the court and follow up on it yourself to have the mistake corrected? Are you saying that the entire court sytem is in some kind of conspiracy against you and will not correct a serious mistake? Having felonies on your record instead of misdemeanors is a huge serious mistake that the court would certainly correct. Please explain if possible. Thank you.
Dear Concerned One,
I have finally (earlier this year) hired a law firm and a private security company to address the matter in question. There are a couple of different ways to go about making such corrections (so I have learned). We decided to try the process via the state police who keeps criminal records on everyone convicted of state crimes. We succeeded in accomplishing our main objective. I am no longer classified as being convicted of felony phone harassment in any database anywhere. However, because of human error, somehow (after we checked into the results of our painful ‘correction’ efforts) two of the five phone harassment charges that I was tried for remain in the state police database, but indicate that I was convicted of the two charges on a misdemeanor phone harassment level, which is also false. I was not convicted of any of the phone harassment charges, because I was sentenced to court supervision and it was terminated satisfactorily. Therefore, if I were to face another trumped up criminal case or frame job, the Cook County Court record would show that I do not have a single phone harassment conviction of any kind (because I received supervision in that case). However, as it now stands today, if I were pulled over by the police for speeding, a background check in my name of the state police (LEADS) records would incorrectly show that I have been convicted of two misdemeanor phone harassment charges. So, now, some day in the future, I have to go through the entire agonizing and expensive ordeal to have the two false misdemeanor convictions removed from my state police record. I have no idea when I will get to this project. I am quite busy these days on several other matters.
I never alleged that the entire court system formed a conspiracy against me when all these bad things occurred in my name. I merely suggested that one assistant states attorney who prosecuted me on the Cerone related phone case ‘somehow’ forgot to send a (often-used) correction form to the state police records department when my lawyer won our argument for supervision in my resentencing hearing. Oh, and it would have likely been the same prosecutor who probably ‘forgot’ to do the same thing when we won the motion that reduced the case from felony charges to misdemeanors prior to the verdict being handed down.
I hope this information has been helpful.
To my dedicated readers, I apologize for not updating you with the information above much sooner. Thank you. JF
Dear author,
if you are in any way attempting to point fingers in the direction of long time Italian hero Dominic Di Frisco than you are sadly unjust. The work he has done in the Italian-American Community is endless and every person of Italian descent in the city of Chicago is grateful to him for his ongoing devotion to the fight against stereotyping of our great people. Your vocabulary and writing skills are adequate(as you may have had a decent journalism professor along the line, because i certainly do not credit you with the intelligence). However, i certainly do not find you in a position to make such objectively speculated accusations against these highly respectable people in our community. I do hope that your measly internet blogging career never comes close to reaching the height of any respectability as any of these people that you attempt to speak so nastily of.
Dear Anthony,
Whether it’s your first and final time visiting ANP, or not, thanks for stopping by and sharing your opinion this morning. I always thought of Dominic Di Frisco as the Rev. Jesse Jackson of Italians. Please feel free to visit again, as long as you remain appropriate. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Joseph Fosco
It would appear that a number of the majority of voters in Norridge,
Illinois, were not impressed with DiFrisco and his cohorts on Election Day
yesterday. DiFrisco’s man, Tom, lost.
DiFrisco’s man: http://americannewspost.com/frank-coconate/6121/chicago-outfit-alive-and-well-in-illinois-politics/